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The Taft Oilworker Monument is a bronze sculpture group of oil workers on a replica 1910-era cable-tool rig in downtown Taft, California, by Taft-born sculptor Benjamin Victor. The Taft Chamber of Commerce says it was unveiled in 2010, during the city's centennial.
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Oil Worker Monument
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Site-level location · 35.1428° N, 119.4577° W
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The story
In Taft, a town that grew with California's oil boom, oil workers stand in bronze atop a drilling rig. The Taft Oilworker Monument was unveiled in 2010, during the city's centennial and the Oildorado festival, according to the Taft District Chamber of Commerce. The chamber says it shows life-sized oil workers on a replica 1910-era cable-tool rig and honours the drillers, tool dressers and roustabouts of the oil fields.
The sculptor, Benjamin Victor, was born in Taft. KERO 23ABC reports that the city was looking for an artist for a centennial monument and that it came down to three finalists from across the country, Victor among them. "I put everything into that scale model," he told the station. The chamber says he is the youngest artist ever to have a piece in the National Statuary Hall in the US Capitol, and KERO calls the Oil Worker Monument his biggest piece. Dave Noerr, identified by KERO as Taft's mayor, said that in the faces of Victor's sculptures "you can see the sincerity and the dedication of an industry."
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WHAT TO EXPECT
An outdoor bronze monument with engraved bricks and plaques around its base. The Taft District Chamber of Commerce describes it as free to visit and wheelchair accessible, and describes the monument as lit at dusk, with restrooms and restaurants a few blocks away, and suggests 30 to 60 minutes for a visit.
ACCESS
At the corner of South 6th Street and Supply Row in downtown Taft, near the Rails to Trails path, according to the Taft District Chamber of Commerce. It is an outdoor public monument; the chamber lists no opening hours.
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